The Cheese

We made the cheese. I was so excited about making cheese. Fresh mozzarella. It would go so perfectly with the fresh basil and tomatoes in my garden. A touch of olive oil and fresh pepper… I am hungry as I think about it.

But, alas, it was not to be. BFFH and BFFA came over and we poured over the directions to make sure we had everything just right. We took all of the ingredients out of the kit and got our freshly purchased milk out of the fridge. It seems that there are a few things that can lead to problems in the cheese making process which we promptly found out.

One is using chlorinated water. Since this is what comes out of the sink, the water has to be purchased. I didn’t know this before we started, but I did have some distilled water lying around so we used that. The other potential problem is the more pasteurized the milk, the less likely it will be to set. I will admit that I have no idea how to tell how much pasteurization has taken place in the milk.

Long story short, our cheese did not set up, so we ended up with a ricottaish cheese like substance. For sake of argument we will call it a motzicotta. I thought the flavor was lacking quite a bit so we chopped up some basil and added garlic and pepper. That was pretty good, and we ended up having fresh tomato bruchetta on top of the cheese spread.

While it was not exactly what we were expecting, it did turn out pretty good after it set up overnight. Tips for next time… Look specifically for water without chlorine and less pasteurized milk. If I could get my hands on some raw milk that would be ideal…

Was it a success? yes and no. I was happy with the outcome and our very own version of cheese, but I am still going for the traditional motzerella that I know and love.

We will try this again.